SUPPORT THE EMPIRE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 17, 19 December 1927, Page 2

SUPPORT THE EMPIRE.

APPEAL BY MRS L. C. AMERY. Per Press Association. NAPIER, Dec. I£. The Rt. ' Hon. L. G. Amery, the Secretary of State for the Dominions, who at present is the guest of Sir Andrew Russell, “Tunanui,” w r as accorded an enthusiastic civic reception in Napier last night when despite wretched weather conditions there was a large gathering of citizens in the Municipal Theatre. Responding to the welcome, Mr Amery delivered a message of Christmas cheer and expressed his wishes for a prosperous future. To achieve that ho stressed the need for co-operation within the Empire and the working together of the Mother Country and the Dominions. • A rousing appeal to New Zealand women to rally to support the Empire and to remember that the Empire still needs little services and sacrifices that can easily be. made in daily life was also made by Mrs Amery, wife of the Secretary of State for the Dominions. “I have been asked to give you some Christmas message,” said Mrs Amery, “and though I could do' it briefly by offering you conventional greetings I would like you to allow mo to put.my message in a different form—to express it in words which if my appeal is -answered will, bring happiness at Christmas .and- at all- times not-only to you alone by'.to every Briton in the Empire. I can think of nothing more worth saying to you than that I hope you will remember when you set out upon your Christmas shopping expeditions next week how greatly not only the Empire’s prosperity but your own depends upon what you buy. I think that one of our greatest needs to-day is to quicken within ourselves the realisation that every Briton whatever he may be is a member of a family whose welfare is entirely dependent upon the welfare of its individual members. For reasons of sentiment and no less for economic reasons we must realise these facts—the more you spend upon the British industries that supply you with the goods that you cannot make for yourselves the more wor.k there will be for the British working man and the more New Zealand fruit and lamb and cheese will he be able to buy for his family. ■ “I may say that tho work of the Empire Marketing Board lias made tho Briton at Home keen to be your customer. The more you spend upon another Briton the more that other Briton will have to spend upon you (spending' on a foreigner does not mean that he spends on you) and the richer will grow 'wliat I have called tho ‘British family.’ If we all do our spending upon that principle you will easily see how tremendous the massed effect will be and you will see too how much happier this and every future Christmas will be for every Briton in the Empire. Let it be Empire goods every time. • “May I say one other word: AVhere women and girls, and -indeed men and boys, from the Old Country come out to you to make a new life for themselves try to think of them as your own girls or boys going to a big new school a very long way from home, and remember that they are homesick and amid very different conditions and surroundings from those they have grown up in. They must be of good stock and ‘tryers’ or they would not have come. They are. well worth a friendly word and good advice and encouragement over their first mistakes and in their first jobs. Certainly it will and does make all the difference to them, and to their folks in the Old Land.

“Remember that it is not people we do not want at Home who are coming out. It. is ones we do want who, given the chance, can and will make good at Home or abroad. But they like your own ancestors, having a keener spirit, - want to try their fortunes abroad.